Star Trek Micro Machines

**JediTricks** · 08-30-2001

Originally posted by vulcantouch
it was my intent to clean you out of All yer dupes, you duplicitous hider-of-things-from-me after all, given a choice between quantity & VarieTy, who Wouldn't choose the latter? meanwhile, since you brought it up: hey jt, do you have an extra nose?

...btw, have y'all seen in the new 5" captyacht in the latest stfanclub catalog-wrapped-in-a-fanzine (as jt's rightly christened it)? damn, this thing's detail's Way more meticulous & accurate than our coVeTed playmates pseudo-mm! Damn! why couldn't this damn thing've been 2 1/2" long, and only cost $2, like any other mm?

I don't have an extra nose; long story short, I lost one in a terrible accident where I was attempting to spite my own face.

As for my dupes, there are some I probably won't get rid of ever, because I really do make dioramas and "play" with my ships, but I gave up some that I thought I wouldn't... I really can't believe I gave you one of my 2 big ol'... well, you'll see.

That Captain's Yacht is very nice, but the price is very UNnice. While it looks good, it's just AF sized and not a vehicle we saw a whole lot of anyway (though it DID do something in the film). I don't understand why Playmates didn't do more shuttles and stuff like this that made sense as an Action Fleet rip offs instead of radically changing the larger ship's designs to hold mini figures.

**vulcantouch** · 08-31-2001

ncc2000 has responded to your request for an nx, as follows:
I'll go get my box of stmms and get out the NXs, and see if one of them I can put up with parting with. Gimme a min............................................... ..........................
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...................Ok...found them. Small box + Lots of stmms = Hell. Only 2 are loose. The other two are still in their packages, a 3piece and a 9piece. After looking over these two, I can say that I will part with one. Let me know what I can get in return for it, and We'll see Now you go 'do your thing' and tell them what I told you here.
ok sk, now you do Your thing and get in touch w/him directly

email me if you want his address & i'll give it to you

ongoing mystery of jt's identity is solved: he is none other than Mark Hamill, who Also collects sw and Also lost his nose in a post-anh accident (was subsequently reconstructed from his ear cartilege)

big ol' What?

ok, fine, there're some dupes you Won't part with; but tell me Which ones anyway, just outta curiosity: any tailenders?

"not a vehicle we saw a whole lot of anyway"
-sigh, we've had this debate before, but: we don't see a whole lot of princess stephanie either (and she Certainly doesn't "do much"

), but if i could get an economical clone of her i wouldn't kick That outta bed 4 eatin crackers

yacht Looks cool and is a unique design, That's what counts, not its screen time

vt
np: thomas dolby, "screen kiss"

**good shot jansen** · 09-06-2001

Originally posted by vulcantouch

btw gsj, now that you recently completed your stmm collection, when do we get to hear your thoughts on the line as a whole? also, whaddya think of kaztorp/array (the last 2 you needed)?

lemmeseeee

1st off, the torp and array are definately two of my faves! the color of the torp is an amazing contrast of colors. when placed next to the kazon fighter, the varying degrees of purple, with the splash of yellow from the torp, make these two a winning combination. the other two kazons (mothership and raider), although interestingly shaped (my hats off to galoob on the well crafted mixture of rounded edges and right angles on the raider) really hold nothing for me.

the array is magnificent in sheer size alone! i wuz not expectin this guy to be so big!

my favorite of the federation large ships is a toss up between voyager and the ent e. i love the blue nacelles on the e (too bad they couldn't have made en transparent ala the capt' yacht).

voyager shape translated well as a mm. the movable nacelles is of course a major plus!

the defiant is my favorite of the federation mid size ships. funny, at 1st i didn't like it at all, but over time i find myself picking up that one, and swooshing it around the room quite a bit. the different shades of blue, with white features works very well on this platypus of a ship. it's interesting to look at from all angles.

the voyager shuttle wins hands down for small federation ships. nothing else comes close shape or color wise (honorable mention goes to the capt' yacht, but being how this one ain't no mm, i shouldn't mention it at all!)

as fer the klingons, it's a toss up between the dark green bop and the bounty.

of course the bounty is super cool with it's movable wings (which makes it the better looking one when displayed on a stand), but i still like the overall paint job of the dark green one (particularly the subtle textures applied to the feathering of the wing, it makes it shimmer when the light hits it right!) honorable mention goes to the d7 battle wagon 9but of course that's prolly due more to nostalgic memories than anything else)

as fer the romulans, the bop still gets my nod. i love the shape of this ship, and the bird graphic on the underside is so menacing when it swoops in fer the kill.

of the deep space 9 aliens, again it's a toss up between jem hadar and the obsidian. the jem hadar gets the prince favorite ship award due to it's wonderful purple shading, and the obsidian scale and massing is so much better shown than on the galor.

i like all the space stations, when grouped all together, along with cloud city, tibana gas and the death stars, they are all really cool lookin!

ships that i can take or leave (can't really say that i dislike any of em, but the following is a list of those i ain't too crazy about)

ferengi marauder (compared with the detail of just about everyother ship in the line, da heck happened here? they coulda etched a few more grooves in the ol die stamper if ya ask me

)
numiri (if only it was a different color scheme i might have liked it better)
space dock shuttle (or as i recall, you refer to it as the ol' bar of soap)
grissom (having just watched st III this weekend, this ship is really a disapointment as an mm, when it looked quite good in the movie)
borg cube (did they have to make sooooooooo many

)

the one thing that i will say with regards to the entire line, when displayed, with each group of ships gathered together based on their affiliation, the star trek mm's are far more satisfying, eye candy wise than their star wars counter parts.

**vulcantouch** · 09-19-2001

from pg. 302 of terry erdmann's encyclopedic Deep Space Nine Companion, behind-the-scenes info re 4th season's (topically enough) Homefront/Paradise Lost 2-parter, specifically the built-for-those-episodes starfleet command building model "inspired, in part, by the general motors pavillion in the 1964 world's fair":
"although it's nearly impossible to see them on a television screen, the front of the building is detailed with statues of famous starships. (galoob Star Trek toys were used for this aspect of the composition.)"
accompanying foto seems to indicate presence of 1701, ent-a and reliant. a fourth, unseen ship may also be present judging from a shadow it seems to be throwing

gsj: "star trek mm's are far more satisfying, eye candy wise than their star wars counter parts"
-i always agreed with this because of stmm's wider, more modulated range of hues; but imo with ep1 the swmm line has begun to rival stmm color sublimity. i hope trend continues w/ep2&3- and of course yet-unavailable ep1 ships

"(defiant's) interesting to look at from all angles"
-aside, of course, from its needlessly inacurrate underside

"the obsidian scale and massing is so much better shown than on the galor"
-actually, i consider the galor's massing the more skillful & elegant composition. also, its detailing is more minute

what i prefer about the obsidian, on the other hand, is its more exuberant palette and more esoteric associations (this design aside was only featured in personal-fave 3rd-season eps "defiant" and "the die is cast")

what i'm tryina say is i dig em both so much i'd hate to have to choose between em

what struck me about array, rather than its size, was the ambitiousness of its translation; depiction of such a skeletal structure in that scale & material required inevitable concessions, but undaunted galoob remained, and the resultant toy's impressive

my overall fave klingon is the flagship; my fave klingon translation is the hms k-bop (besides its yummy guac color, i too think the wings look cooler pulled up than down)

it's not so much the shape of the voy that impressed me in mm form as the visual texture & density of its detailing (as with farragut); somethin aboot it comes 2gether real nicelike

vt
np: chicago, "color my world"

**good shot jansen** · 10-19-2001

some more observations on a theme.

the ent -c has got to be the worst assembled mm yet!

it reminds me of the product that detroit tried to cram down our throats in the 70's. pieces don't quite fir right, detailing very sloppy.

the connection of the saucer section to the body is atrocious!

unfortunately the same can be said (fortunately to a lesser degree) for the ent -e

waht happened here, did the plastic heat welding machine take a dump?

i love the subtle differences between the excelsior, and the ent-b! brilliant! i had 1st thought that they were just repaint twins, but upon comparing the two, i was delighted to find that they were indeed two different ships! hats off to galoob for this bit of joy!

btw, on one of my exel's, the top saucer marking is nx-2000, while the underside of the saucer is ncc-2000!

of the two others, one is ncc top and bottom, the other is nx top and bottom.

ofr some strange reason, i've taken a strong liking for the numiri ship. on 1st look, it appears to be a black boring piece o' dreck, but upon closer examination of it's subtle hues of purple, blue grey and silver, the craft takes on a somewhat deceptively attractive appearance when viewed from different angles. all in all, a very well detailed, nicely produced mm!

more observations to follow............................

np: the firm - startrekkin'

**JediTricks** · 10-19-2001

The Ent-A is the most disappointing IMO in terms of saucer connection being sloppy, and it's the one MM that's virtually impossible to replace (as well as being my favorite Enterprise, I really don't understand Galoob's thinking making that ship the HTF one). Come to think of it, the Ent E the Defiant, and the Ent A are the 3 ships in my collection I've replaced with pewter due to accuracy concerns.

**vulcantouch** · 10-20-2001

in that case, lmk if you don't want yer "crappy" ent-a, ent-e & defiant mms

if so, shipping for your d blueprint's'll be free

it's not imPOSSible to replace ent-as, i used to bullseye them for b'jr in my t-16 back home

i've been able to get him 3 complete, plus a couple busted ones he's still deciding what to do with (repair? customize into new ships?)

my personal ent-a is flawless (or close enough for my taste anyway- sometimes you don't mind certain kinds of flaws, know what i mean?), but its saucer was initially affixed off-kilter. so i just cut the connection point w/a razor, then re-glued it straighter

but i agree that galoob making it an exclusive Was stupid

my association with b'jr has afforded me the opportunity to closely examine many multiples of pretty much every mm ship made. in doing so, i've been able to discern patterns re what ship designs were chronically plagued with certain kinds of flaws as a result of the manufacturing process. because of this, i've also been able to gain a bit more objectivity re the difference between manufacturing flaws chronic to a particular ship design and charismatic failings of a particular design

unlike gsj i haven't noticed Too many connection problems re ent-c, but he's correct in that pretty much every ent-c's saucer seems pulled like taffy to starboard. same goes for stargazer

what i don't get about the ent-e is why they bothered to make the body & saucer 2 pieces that require subsequent gluing? it's not like doing so helped them with any mold undercuts, and every step added to assembly increases cost. so why didn't they just make it one piece (not counting the nacelles- but for that matter they coulda been made part of the same piece without much loss. maybe in return we coulda got a lot more hull detailing?

) it's not like the 2-piece decision allowed them to save That much plastic by hollowing out its "neck"

gsj: "top saucer marking is nx-2000, while the underside of the saucer is ncc-2000"
-our canadian stmm-collectin pal ncc-2000 might be interested in this VarianT; i'll bring it to his attention, maybe you & him can do some biz

"i love the subtle differences between the excelsior, and the ent-b"
-all the same, if i hadda choice between getting 2 nearly-identical ships or a completely unique design like cardie patroller, jemhadar battleship etc, there'd be no contest

vt
np: elton, "goodbye yeller brick road"

**good shot jansen** · 10-23-2001

and that puppy is perfect! guess i jes got a bad one in my three pack. as fer the saucer section on both of em (igot third one somewhere as well), niether one is listing to the side, so i guess that's a hit or miss quality control thang as well.

i agree with you vt, about the two piece ent-e. what the hell was they thinking? sometimes when the light catches it right, the jointing between the two sections can get down right annoying to notice.

oh well, i guess we should just consider us lucky that we even have an ent-e to gripe about!

i guess the ent-a also falls under the hit or miss catagory, mine is perfect, and is actually one of my better ships with regards to all around quality.

vt, tell your friend (who i' assumin' is the same person who you had once referred to as an excelsior freak some time ago), that he is welcome to the nx top ncc bottom. better yet, you're welcome to it, and if you choose, you may surprize him with it! you're call. i'll enclose it in my upcomin' package to you.

np: jurassic 5 - quality control

**vulcantouch** · 10-31-2001

. . . & i'm loathe to start new threds when existent ones serve just fine, i'll say thanx gsj Here, upon the arrival of your latest pkg

here's what he sent:
die-cast ent-a and k-bop, kinda goofy lookin compared to mms but appreciated nontheless

-loose stmms, heavy on the klingons: kbop, d7, vorcha, 2 gen kbops, spacedock shuttle and farragut

all of above are destined for conscription into b'jr's fleet, for which he axed me to convey thanx to gsj on his be 1/2

now what's really important to me:
-hallmark droid fighter and nabfighter ornaments; smaller than i expected, but still intriguing. and did you know the n1 has 2-part construction that allows for hull separation undercuts not featured on our mms??

you want review, jt?? here' syour review

i got so intrigued by these that i stopped at a hallmark to see the control ship and starfleet legends ornies in person. (i too tried to buy the display ones; no joy

) can't wait for my control ship (thanx agin swaffy

); as for the starfleets, Damn they actually look pretty good! a nice sub for anyone who doesn't want a long, costly hunt for mms of ent-e, voy & defiant

if only they were a little bigger; while voy's nacelles don't pivot, these ships' detail is actually Superior to their galoob siblings. ent-e has a particularly elegant silhouette, and while the defiant's underlying shapes (warp cowls, bridge disc, forward nose etc) lack a some deftness in execution, the detail & paintjob On those shapes is sublime

i'm gonna try scoring these on ebay for under $6, so until i can the restaya stay the helloutamyway

-mm-sized 1980 buck rogers diecast ship bc3 sent to gsj, who gave it up to me when i whined

hell, I'd never do that; this thing's Way too cool

it even balances like a glove on an mm stand

-finally the b5 #6 packaging, complete with multi-height bubble to accomodate the ef1 ship, real cool

which reminds me, are you going to be sending bc3 any stuff gsj, or should i send him the 6-back b5 card myself? lmk

he also sent a perfect-sized box i can use for jt's blueprinks

speakin of whom, that grissom jt said he sent stillhasn't turned up; hey, for that matter, gsj forgot to send ncc/nx 2000 like he sed he was gonna (see above post)

don't mind me fellers (and Don't rush special shipments containing just that one ship

)- lookin gift horses in they mouths' just my nature

hey gsj, if you look closer at your "perfect" ent-c, i bet you'll find its saucer is taffy-pulled, however slightly, to port

i've never seen One that wasn't, and i've seen a bunch.
thanx agin geeser

vt
np: inner city, "do ya"

**LTBasker** · 10-31-2001

No matter the perfection levels in how the Enterprise-C is put together in the neck connections, it's still an ugly connector piece... The Enterprise-C mm wouldn't be so bad if it had a decent neck, IMO.

I didn't know you could balance a glove on an MM stand... :P